SARAH GONG
Centre for Digital Media, Personal Project, 2019.
The Manuscript is an interactive spin-off story of the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It tells the following stories after the main characters Newt and Tina said goodbye, who have been apart for a long time since their last adventure in New York.
This is a 12-week visual storytelling project collaborated with my friend Mika Chang at the Centre for Digital Media.
To interact with the story, click "view story" here.
Also, you can check my journey of visual storytelling.
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Contributed to the interactive storytelling by making storyboards and wrote scripts.
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Procured and rented shooting facilities and LEGO objects needed for the short movie.
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Within 12 weeks, shot and edited over 1600 photos of LEGO objects and green screen with the camera and the phone.
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Edited the video and created the visual effects in Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects and Illustrator.
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Created movie interactions with an online tool called Verse software.
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A stop motion video created with LEGO objects
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Embedded with a digital interactive book
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Intended for Fantastic Beasts and Harry Potter enthusiasts
The experiences we would like to create are:
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Emotional response: For the audiences who are familiar with Fantastic Beasts stories, they will develop an emotional connection to the story and characters, and will find new fun in this LEGO stop motion video; for people who never heard of such stories before, they will develop a sense of curiosity.
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Interaction: The audience will be able to decide which part of the story they want to watch through our interactive design.
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Inspiration: The audience will see implications of the story on their own life, and be aspired to find similar moments.
Intention of the project
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Interactive storytelling: To design an interactive storytelling experience by applying digital media technologies.
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Tools and software: To purposefully learn and practice some video editing and/or animation software, such as Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effect, Photoshop and Illustrator. More importantly, we would like to seek a suitable software for realizing the interactive functions in the story.
Story Synopsis
Newt is an author and magizoologist in the UK. He rescues rare magical creatures across the world. During his trip in New York, he met Tina who was working in the American Magic Ministry. When the two departed, he promised Tina, the woman he admired, that he would write a book about fantastic beasts and bring it to her in person. A couple of years later, one day, Tina found a book in front of her door. However, Tina didn’t see Newt. The book brought back all her memories of adventures with fantastic beasts. What unknown to her was that a surprise awaits her.
Characters
Newt is passionate about magical beasts. He is also s a respected expert in the field of Magizoology.
Tina is a half-blood American witch who works in the American Magic Ministry.
Queenie is the younger sister of Tina. She is also a witch and is good at reading people’s thoughts.
Magical Creatures
<---- Occamy
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Lives in the Far East and India
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Extremely aggressive
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Lives on insects, rats, birds, and monkeys
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Grows or shrinks to fit any space
Thunderbird ---->
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Native to Arizona, America
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A close relative of the Phoenix
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Can create storms as it flies
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Highly sensitive to danger
Considering that the charm of those exotic magical beasts would be the key to making the whole story more engaging and attractive, we pivot the idea to a magic book that records the exciting moment of the main characters’ adventure with fantastic beasts the Occamy and Thunderbird.
The story is divided into five acts:
Act 1: Flashback
The first act continues with story of the film Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them. At the end of the film, Newt needs to go back to the UK. At the harbor in New York, he says goodbye to Tina, a woman he admires. He says he is going write down the stories of the adventures with the magical creatures. He also promises that once he finishes the book he will send the manuscript to Tina in person.
Act 2: An interactive book - The Manuscript
After a few years, the memories start to fade in Tina’s mind. However, one day, Tina hears that there is someone knocking her door. To her big surprise, she finds a book called Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them – The Manuscript in front of her door. Suddenly, all the memories come back to her. She opens the book and starts to read the first chapter Occamy.
Act 3: Occamy
Occamy is hiding in a deserted attic. It is very sensitive to any noise and afraid of humans. Newt, Tina, Jacob and Queenie sneak in the place and try to catch it. No matter how they try, the Occamy is too wide to capture. Fortunately, Newt thinks of Occamy’s habbit and suggests that they can use a cockroach and a teapot to catch it.
Act 4: Thunderbird
The Thunderbird is a magic creature that Newt rescued in a Afrian smuggler a few years ago. He always wants to release it to its native place – Arizona in the US. He introduces the Thunderbird to Jacob and tells him its story. At the end of their trip in the US, Newt finally brings the Thunderbird back to its home.
Act 5: A surprise
Tina slowly closes the book with tears in her eyes. When she raises her head, she finds that Newt just uses magic to show up in Tina’s places. What awaits Tina?
